CHOKTAW Rope, TITAN Survival’s premium waxed jute emergency tinder, is a waterproof and wind-resistant fire tinder that holds a flame longer and brighter than any other emergency tinder out there. Made from 100% All-Natural Jute Fiber, we then impregnate it with paraffin-wax using a proprietary process that maximizes burn time and creates the ultimate emergency tinder that is reliable, versatile, and effective. It comes in a rope stick form-factor, but it can be used in more ways than just one.
In this article we cover the different ways that you can utilize our CHOKTAW Rope, which will not only improve your general fire-making skills, but can also increase your chances of survival in an emergency. And no matter how you use it, you’ll pretty much always have a starter-fire that will burn longer and brighter against the elements than almost anything else out there. Allowing you plenty of time to nurse that initial fire into a useful campfire.
Shaved Waxed Jute
The first method that we can use CHOKTAW Rope is by shaving it into a small pile, and then using your trusty SurvivorSteel ferro-rod or ARC lighter to ignite the pile. This is a quick way to create a small pile of highly flammable and reliable material that lights extremely easy.
To create your starter tinder, simply take a knife or anything with a sharp edge on it and either shave along the side of the rope for longer strands of jute, or just shave the end of the rope off at a rough 45° angle for short, smaller pieces. In either case, you’re going to want to shave off about 1 inch of the CHOKTAW Rope, which will burn long enough to get your final fire going. AND be careful not to cut yourself!
Once you’ve got what you need, gather it all together into a focused tinder pile, about 1-2 inches wide, and about ½ - 1 inch tall. An alternative to the tinder pile is gathering other natural materials such as grass, dry leaves, moss, pine needles, or anything else that is dry and can help catch fire. You can make a bird’s nest out of that dry material and then utilize a smaller amount of shaved waxed jute in the middle of the bird’s nest. Once you have made the bird’s nest or the tinder pile, all you have to do is set a spark to it and you will have reliable starter-fire. And all you need is a knife or something sharp, your CHOKTAW Waxed Jute Rope, and something to spark or light it. Only 3 materials and you’ll have access to reliable fire, which can be crucial in an emergency.
Unwound & Fluffed Waxed Jute
For the second method, you don’t even need a knife. You’re simply going to process a single strand of the CHOKTAW Rope into a highly-flammable, fluffy tinder pile. While this method typically catches fire much faster than the shaved waxed jute method, it also burns much faster due to the amount of surface area and air flow that the fire has access to.
First, you’ll take a stick of CHOKTAW Rope and unwrap it, then grab it with both hands a twist in opposite directions. As a result, you should now have four separate large jute strands, each of which is about ¼” in diameter. You’re only going to need one of these, so put the other three back into our fire-kit for future use.
Next, you will twist that single strand again, in the exact same manner as before, resulting in about 30 thin strands of waxed jute that you can now process into a tinder pile. To process the jute, simply take each strand, and spread apart with your fingernails until you can see the individual fibers inside, with the wax flaking off, in what looks like a web-like structure. Another equally viable option is to scrape the individual fibers longitudinally with a sharp rock or knife to create a small pile of extremely fine hair-like fibers that will burn very quickly.
Once you’ve processed 10 - 15 individual small strands, you can either press the fibers together to create a small concave bird’s nest to capture a spark, or just make a tinder pile and set a spark to it there. If you utilize the CHOKTAW Rope for the accelerant in a bird’s nest, you won’t need any other material such as dried leaves or moss. The bird’s nest will be completely made up of that fluffed up waxed jute fiber.
Finally, once you have your tinder pile or bird’s nest, simply use a ferro-rod or lighter to ignite your pile of waxed jute and POOF! Fire! This method requires only the waxed jute and a ferro-rod, which could save your life if you’ve lost your knife or have limited resources.
A Waxed Jute Torch
The third way that we like to use our CHOKTAW Rope requires one simple step: Light the end of a whole ¼” strand on fire like a candle-wick, and then use that “wick” to initiate other fires such as lighting multiple lanterns or a larger campfire. This method is primary used to extend the life of your existing lighter when you’re in the wild, so that you don’t have to use a lot of lighter fluid (or battery life in the case of our TACAMO Survival ARC Lighter) trying to get a fire going.
Because CHOKTAW Rope is compressed during the manufacturing process, a single ¼” strand of waxed jute, without being processed, is quite dense and doesn’t really allow a lot of airflow – which reduces its ability to take a spark from a ferrocerium rod. For that reason, this final “torch” method is not really intended for starting a fire in an emergency, but rather for extending your ability to light fires.
Whether you use one or all of these methods, CHOKTAW Waxed Jute Rope delivers a reliable fire that will outlast and outshine its competitors. It is easy to use and completely weatherproof, and it doesn’t get much better than that! And please practice these methods out at home, before you need them…because knowing the strengths and weaknesses of all three methods increases your survival capability and preparedness skills.
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